Manchester United goalkeeper Ben Foster let in a howler during the club's pre-season friendly in Malaysia but kept a clean sheet in the next game. Photograph: John Peters/Man Utd via Getty Images

If, as Sir Alex Ferguson and everyone else at Old Trafford believes, Ben Foster's season will end keeping goal for England in South Africa, it was not an auspicious beginning.

A routine back-pass from Darron Gibson was not controlled, Foster was dispossessed by Malaysia's best player, Amri Yahyah, who was presented with an empty net. The 85,000 in the Bukit Jalil Stadium exploded, there was another cascade of flashbulbs from the stands and, even though it may only have been a friendly, Foster took the familiar stance of a humiliated goalkeeper, hands on hips, talking to no one in particular. It will take more, much more, for Ferguson to lose faith and in a 2–0 win over a Malaysia XI yesterday there was a more familiar clean sheet. "This was Ben's first game for four months. He dislocated a finger at the end of last season and we had to operate," said the United manager. "I have said it before and I will say it again, there is no question in my mind that he will be England's goalkeeper. There is nobody better. I am absolutely convinced of that.

"But he has two challenges. One is to take the position of Edwin van der Sar, who as everybody accepts, is one of the great goalkeepers of all time." The other, Ferguson accepted, was in the hands of fate. "We have to hope and pray that he stays free of injury and consistency will be everything for the boy." For someone who has suffered a cruciate ligament injury and missed eight weeks of last season with a twisted ankle, this is not an idle prayer.

Very rarely does any England manager, especially one as fastidious as Fabio Capello, select anyone who is not first choice for their clubs. There was a time, around December 2007, when it seemed Van der Sar's days were done. There had been mistakes and the Dutchman began publicly questioning his own form and longevity. Then came the rediscovery of his touch that ended in his saving Nicolas Anelka's penalty to win the European Cup for Manchester United in Moscow. Ferguson remarked that Van der Sar was so confident he actually broke out into a smile as he dived across.

"It is a big 12 months for me," Foster said today. "I have just got to kick on and start playing a few matches. Of course the World Cup is a big motivation for me. You don't get many chances to play in a World Cup and I feel that provided I can play some games for Manchester United, I have a realistic chance of going."

Should Foster, now 26, make it to South Africa, it will mark the end of one of the more remarkable journeys in modern football. In the days when young players are cosseted in academies, there will not be many internationals who can boast spells at Stafford Rangers, Tiverton Town and Kidderminster Harriers on their CVs.

There are not many who would listen on their iPods to descriptions of where opponents would place a penalty that gave him a critical edge as Manchester United engaged in the shoot-out with Tottenham that decided an otherwise dreadful Carling Cup final.

Foster's path to Old Trafford began in the 2005 LDV Vans Trophy final, where Foster, officially on Stoke's books, though he had yet to play for them, was turning out for Wrexham against Southend at the Millennium Stadium.

"I remember it as massively important because three or four months before I don't think I had played in a competitive league match," Foster recalled. "It was a good time to perform because halfway through that game the cameraman, who was filming for the big screen at the Millennium Stadium, zoomed in on Alex Ferguson's face and I thought to myself, 'Oh, he's watching is he'.

"He was obviously there to see his son Darren [who was then playing for Wrexham] and he got man of the match and I was devastated because it had gone to extra time, we'd won 2-0 and I thought I'd done enough."

Ferguson certainly thought so and paid Stoke £1m for Foster's services and immediately loaned him out to Watford. Again he ended the season in Cardiff, as part of the side that demolished Leeds 3–0 in the 2006 play-off final. Ferguson may call him the best goalkeeper in England but his then manager, Aidy Boothroyd, stated he had the potential to be the best in the world. This season those statements will be put to the test.